Time to shriek and shake
single mum (a welcome return to Kiwi shores by Heavenly Creatures‘ Melanie Lynskey) and an adored little brother, Jacko, Laura is the awkward girl at school – shy and pretty, not weird enough to be hated but still bemused when a handsome new boy takes an interest in her. Selfcontained and perceptive, Laura soon becomes embroiled in a supernatural tale which will give you the willies, thanks to its tight script and a standout performance by British legend Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies, Harry Potter).
It’s a fairly typical Young Adult Lit set-up – girl has special powers she doesn’t understand; girl meets boy who she can’t tell about it; crazy stuff happens; boy and girl band together. But thankfully, The Changeover doesn’t follow the Twilights and Hunger Games series into love triangle territory, and instead keeps the story personal and, strange as it is to say for something laced with witching and black magic, more realistic.
To this end, it’s a suitably New Zealand film, more in the vein of our dark-themed cinema of unease than our fantasy Hobbits. James plays each scene as if it’s totally true, and Spall is utterly terrifying.
Co-directors Miranda Harcourt (a long-time actress and acting coach) and husband Stuart McKenzie adapted the novel together, and their respect for the source material is evident, even in their making the call to ‘‘update’’ the 1984 book to a different time and place.
Christchurch itself becomes almost a character in the story – the production filmed in the red zone for six weeks – and even the beautiful photography can’t shroud the implicit sense of a war-torn city under siege (here, not by Mother Earth but a soul-sucking demon).
With top-notch sound design, music well-chosen for a teen audience and, most importantly, really sharp acting from all involved, The Changeover isa worthy addition to the cinematic YA genre which can proudly boast a local edge. – Sarah Watt